Last Train to Christmas – Enjoyable Festive Film
Director: Julian Kemp
Writer: Julian Kemp (Screenplay)
Starring: Michael Sheen, Nathalie Emmanuel, Cary Elwes, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Robin Askwith, Sophie Simnett
Plot: Followed by Tony Towers, he’s a local celebrity, a successful nightclub manager and he is engaged to a younger woman, Sue. Things get a little strange when he embarks upon the 3:17 to Nottingham for a Christmas family reunion.
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Last Time to Christmas starts in 1985 as nightclub owner Tony Towers (Sheen) is taking his new fiancée Sue (Emmanuel) to meet his family for Christmas, but when he looks to change carriage, he finds himself going to the 1995, looking like a shell of a man.
When Tony starts to piece together that reality, he will change decade with each carriage he looks to try and figure out how he can fix his life mistakes, only struggling to understand everything that went wrong between the decades.
Thoughts on Last Time to Christmas
Characters & Performances – Tony Towers is a flamboyant nightclub owner who is celebrating his latest openings and his engagement with a trip home to Nottingham. He has always been more selfish in his success, stepping on people to achieve this, until he finds himself meeting a future version of himself, one that isn’t the man he knows. Tony must go through his life, learning about his own mistakes which have seen loved ones make wrong decisions, finding each decision being a potential changing moment in his life. Michael Sheen is brilliant in this role, with each scene giving him a chance to play a different aged role, different decade, while bringing a different approach to his own characters problems. When it comes to the supporting characters we will see Roger, Tony’s brother who is the main reason for the journey, seeing how he is trying to save him and their own relationship between the pair. Each other person is only involved in certain moments of their lives, with each visit he makes, having an importance to where he will need to go in his life.
Story – The story here follows the flamboyant nightclub owner who finds himself going back through his life to learn about the decisions he has made in life and what will have caused the consequences in his life. This is a story that will use the idea of Christmas and the fantasy element of traveling through time to learn about mistakes, similar to what A Christmas Carol would have in the past, putting the importance on the idea of helping family first and foremost. This is told in a wonderful way, showing the lasting effects of a minor change put in lives, in a position where not everything will work out, and each step will need to be fixed.
Themes – Last Time to Christmas is a fantasy comedy that will show the time traveling effects from the train, giving one man a chance to work through his life, giving him a chance to correct the things he might have done wrong. This is a film that relies on the ideas of different eras of trends to define where the character is in time, from haircuts to pop culture references, each one will have an important impact in creating the world, with the style of film being used reflecting what would have been available at the time.
Final Thoughts – Last Time to Christmas is an enjoyable Christmas experience, showing us the importance of doing the right thing.
